ices another wreck with its lock open, wanders over, sees a
few bones and stuff lying around inside, picks up a star hyacinth, and
learns from the ship's records that down in the hold under sixty feet of
water is a sealed compartment with a whole little crateful of the
stones...."

"That's the story," Dasinger agreed.

"In the Fleets," she remarked, "if we heard of a place where a couple of
ship's crews seemed to have vanished into thin air, we'd call it a
spooked world. And usually we'd keep away from it." She clamped her
lower lip lightly between her teeth for a moment. "Do you think Dr.
Egavine has considered the kwil angle?"

[Illustration]

Dasinger nodded. "I'm sure of it. Of course it's only a guess that the
kwil made a difference for Farous. The stuff has no known medical value
of any kind. But when the only known survivor of two crews happens to be
a kwil-eater, the point has to be considered."

"Nobody else on Handing's Scout took kwil," Duomart said. "I know that.
There aren't many in the Fleet who do." She hesitated. "You know,
Dasinger, perhaps I should try it again! Maybe if I took it straight
from the needle this time ..."

Dasinger shook his head. "If the little flake you nibbled made you feel
drowsy, even a quarter of a standard shot would put you out cold for an
hour or two. Kwil has that effect on a lot of people. Which is one
reason it isn't a very popular drug."

"What effect does it have on you?" she asked.

"Depends to some extent on the size of the dose. Sometimes it slows me
down physically and mentally. At other times there were no effects that
I could tell until the kwil wore off. Then I'd have hallucinations for a
while--that can be very distracting, of course, when there's something
you have to do. Those hangover hallucinations seem to be another fairly
common reaction."

He concluded, "Since you can't take the drug and stay awake, you'll
simply remain inside the locked ship. It will be better anyway to keep
the Mooncat well up in the air and ready to move most of the time we're
on the planet."

"What about Taunus and Calat?" she asked.

"They come out with us, of course. If kwil is what it takes to stay
healthy down there, I've enough to go around. And if it knocks them out,
it will keep them out of trouble."

* * * * *

"Looks like there's a firemaker down there!" Duomart's slim forefinger
indicated a point on the ground-view plate. "Column o